Minnesota Short Sale Expert

If you have been watching for a specific type or style of property you will notice that there are far fewer of them showing up in your property search results recently. This market “frenzy” with low interest rates and the $8500 tax credit has really helped to get the buyers out there purchasing homes. The overall number of actively listed properties continues to decline along with the total number of lender mediated sales (foreclosures and short sales).

But wait…!!!

There is going to be another round of foreclosure properties coming to the market this fall. This is because of the moratorium that was placed on foreclosures by the President earlier this spring. So when that was lifted the banks need to wait for the 6 month redemption period to come to the end. That’s when these properties will be hitting the active market sometime between August and October. This will mean some great values are just ahead again for those buyers that are willing to do the fix-ups and repairs.

Short sale opportunities continue to exist as well because of the large number of homeowners facing the possibility of foreclosure. These homeowners are taking the step to sell the property rather than let it go into foreclosure, thus saving at least some of their good credit.

If you or someone you know is facing the possibility of foreclosure, please feel free to call me directly for more information of how a short sale can save you from foreclosure. 

Rob Reinke…763-242-6303

The current real estate market continues to be one of the best times in our history to purchase real estate because of the prices that continue to decline. We have never seen the kinds of numbers that we are right now with the sales of active properties. Nearly 58% of all homes that are listed for sale and that receive an offer are either a short sale or a foreclosure. You might ask why would people purchase these homes. They must need a tone of work to even live in.

It is true that some of the “distressed” properties (short sales and foreclosures) will require extensive updating and repair work to even be able to live in the properties. Some of them may even need a complete rehab. However, in many cases these homes happen to be someone’s family home where they kept it up nicely as they lived there. Unfortunately the family fell on hard times and could no longer afford to pay the mortgage resulting in them either attempting to short sale the home OR letting it slip into foreclosure.   

These homes that have not been neglected offer a buyer a very good opportunity to purchase a home at a very discounted price and it may only need a bit of a “spit shine” to bring the property back to a great condition. This is why there are 58% of all sales that are short sales or foreclosures. Many buyers are willing to possibly put in a little money to update a property rather than pay many thousands more for another property that is very similar.

If you a looking for deep discounts and great deals in our marketplace I would suggest at least considering viewing short sale and foreclosure properties. If you would like a list of these properties please contact me and I can send them automatically to your email.

This topic is on the minds of many right now. With so many of us facing challenges keeping up on the mortgage payments the most common option is to look at possibly doing a loan modification. The federal government has come out with “plans” and the media is talking about them, but will they actually work for you..?? It would be great if there was a simple website that we could plug in some of our own personal and financial information and it would kick back an answer of yes or no.  But of course nothing is ever that easy.

The last figure that I saw is that over 85% of all loan modifications applied for never end up going through to be successful. This is very discouraging. Either the lenders are willing to do them or their not. Why take several months to make a decision that it is not approved..?? If the lender does modify the loan what is modified are the TERMS not the amount that you owe.

Most people think that their situation will warrant that the lender will accept the loan modification. After all they have been a great client to this lender. Maybe there has never even been a payment missed. The reality is that a loan modification has qualification guidelines that rival getting the loan in the first place. In many cases (not all) if one of the borrowers has lost a job and the income has gone down, they don’t qualify. This of course seems odd that they would not want to work with the borrower to keep them in this loan even if it means modifying it. The unfortunate reality is that if these homeowners are not able to modify they will be forced to take more drastic steps including selling it as a short sale or even letting it go back through foreclosure. These loan modification applications are taking several months to even get any answers which often times forces the homeowner to miss additional payments getting them into even a deeper hole.  

I would recommend looking at your options with doing a loan modification but NOT to get your hopes up that it will actually be approved n the end. If you see no other options please feel free to call me about your possibility of doing a short sale on your property.

We all realize by now that this is a great time to be a buyer  in this real estate market. But where do we find the best deals..?? Surprisingly it is NOT always in foreclosures as most may lead you to believe. In fact some homeowners that are selling what I refer to as a “regular” home are finally pricing them to sell and that means in the same range of what a similar foreclosure home might go for.

You do have options when searching for the “best” deal. These include of course the foreclosure properties but also the “regular” homes as well as short sale properties. Looking at each of these individually you need to ask yourself what sort of time frame you are dealing with and how soon you have to move into the new property. If you need to move in soon and really do not have time to wait then a “regular” home or foreclosure are the best ones to look at. However, if you are not in a huge hurry or can take your time then a short sale may offer a very good value.

If you decide to pursue short sale properties you should expect the process to take between 2-4 months before the approval comes in from the lender(s) and you close on the property. This may seem long but if you are willing to wait the deals can be very good. Compared to many foreclosure properties short sale homes often are in very good condition and may not need to have much if any money to be able to move right in. There are a lot of opportunities out there right now so it’s best to keep an open mind and look at each situation to see if it works for you. If it does make a move and put in an offer. 

Please feel free to contact me directly for assistance with any of your real estate needs or to simply ask questions. I can be reached anytime at 763-242-6303 or via email Rob@MnRealEstateTeam.com.

We have many locations in the Twin Cities where both of these builders have developments. They seem to be no different than any of the smaller builders except that they are both losing money at an alarming rate. These companies have decided to join forces rather go it alone moving forward.

Both of these companies have a foothold in our community in many areas and together they will be able to better survive until the unstable market that we are in turns around and with this merger the decision was made to keep the Pulte name.